Archive for September, 2015

The Largest Green Roof In The World

Via Fast Company, a look at the world’s largest green roof project in the world: Vallco Shopping Mall, in the heart of suburban Silicon Valley, is a classic example of the dying shopping center. Half the stores are empty, the food court is abandoned, and people leave Yelp reviews talking about their fear of zombie […]

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Take My Solar Panel, Please!

Via Slate, an article on an interesting San Antonio’s new business model for renewable energy: The business model surrounding rooftop solar has changed dramatically in the past decade. Several years ago early adopters had to spend a lot of money to buy expensive home systems—with no hope of recouping their investments. As prices of silicon panels […]

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Yeloha: Uber Of Rooftops?

Via Solar Love, a look at an interesting concept termed “uber of rooftops”: The peer-to-peer sharing economy is simply a function of the marriage between GPS and smartphone technology. Got a car and are willing to give someone else a ride? Uber will direct you to people nearby who need a ride and are willing to […]

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Solar Financing: Moving From Leases To Loans

Via UtilityDive, an interesting look at the trend towards loans with projections that, by 2020, the rooftop solar market will be $10 billion and half may be owned through loans: The U.S. residential solar market is once again re-inventing itself, even as its growth skyrockets. The third party ownership (TPO) financing structure that revolutionized the business has peaked. […]

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About This Blog And Its Author
As potential uses for building and parking lot roofspace continue to grow, unique opportunities to understand and profit from this trend will emerge. Roof Options is committed to tracking the evolving uses of roof estate – spanning solar power, rainwater harvesting, wind power, gardens & farms, “cooling” sites, advertising, apiculture, and telecom transmission platforms – to help unlock the nascent, complex, and expanding roofspace asset class.

Educated at Yale University (Bachelor of Arts - History) and Harvard (Master in Public Policy - International Development), Monty Simus has held a lifelong interest in environmental and conservation issues, primarily as they relate to freshwater scarcity, renewable energy, and national park policy. Working from a water-scarce base in Las Vegas with his wife and son, he is the founder of Water Politics, an organization dedicated to the identification and analysis of geopolitical water issues arising from the world’s growing and vast water deficits, and is also a co-founder of SmartMarkets, an eco-preneurial venture that applies web 2.0 technology and online social networking innovations to motivate energy & water conservation. He previously worked for an independent power producer in Central Asia; co-authored an article appearing in the Summer 2010 issue of the Tulane Environmental Law Journal, titled: “The Water Ethic: The Inexorable Birth Of A Certain Alienable Right”; and authored an article appearing in the inaugural issue of Johns Hopkins University's Global Water Magazine in July 2010 titled: “H2Own: The Water Ethic and an Equitable Market for the Exchange of Individual Water Efficiency Credits.”